The Israeli military on Saturday issued evacuation orders in Gaza City and urged Palestinian civilians to move to the south of the Gaza Strip, where it said it was designating a humanitarian area.
Aid organizations said such an exodus could worsen the humanitarian crisis in the territory.
The Israeli military warned that it planned to strike two high-rise buildings in Gaza City and ordered people inside them and in nearby tents to leave.
A short time later, it said it had attacked one of the towers.
A military spokesperson said the buildings were targets because of Hamas activity inside or near them. Hamas denied those accusations and said both buildings had been residential towers. It was unclear whether people had been killed or injured in the strike.
The evacuation orders came a day after the military destroyed a high-rise tower in Gaza City, also saying Hamas operated from it, which Hamas denied.
The military said the humanitarian area it designated Saturday was in Muwasi and Khan Younis.
The military urged Palestinians in Gaza to move to those areas, saying it would work to provide “field hospitals, water pipelines and desalination facilities, along with the continued supply of food, tents, medicines and medical equipment.”
In a statement, the Israeli military agency that manages humanitarian affairs in Gaza, known as COGAT, said the facilities were operational.
That statement could not be independently verified. Both Muwasi and Khan Younis have been heavily damaged during the war, and it was not clear what humanitarian assistance was available.
Hamas called on Palestinians in Gaza to remain in their “residential areas” and said there were no safe zones in southern Gaza.
Israel announced in August that it planned to take over Gaza City, which Israeli officials have portrayed as one of Hamas’ last strongholds in Gaza. This past week, the military said it was in control of almost half the city.
The U.N.’s humanitarian affairs office warned Saturday that further intensification of military operations in Gaza City would cause “catastrophe” for civilians, and said it would continue operating in the city to provide aid to those who stay.
The war in Gaza was ignited by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which roughly 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
Since then, the Israeli military response has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to the local Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
More than half those killed have been women, children and older adults, according to local health officials.
The war has destroyed most of Gaza’s infrastructure, and parts of the territory are suffering from famine, according to a U.N.-backed group of food experts.
Gaza City is home to hundreds of thousands of people who have sought shelter in ruined buildings and tent encampments.
Many of those people have been displaced multiple times by Israeli military operations, crisscrossing Gaza as they have fled offensive after offensive.
Israel has directed Palestinians in Gaza to humanitarian zones multiple times during the war, but has sometimes continued to strike those areas.
In September 2024, an Israeli military strike in Muwasi killed at least 19 people. It also struck Muwasi two months before that attack.
In both strikes, the military said the targets were Hamas fighters.
Israel has been preparing to take over Gaza City for weeks. But humanitarian groups have warned that forcing such a large number of people to flee, especially at this stage of the war, would exacerbate a dire humanitarian crisis.
Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement in August that no part of Gaza could absorb a huge influx of people, given the destruction to civilian infrastructure and lack of food, shelter and medical care.
“It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current conditions,” she said.
(Miami Herald)
